Letter: No deal with Tories

Sir: Because Michael Ashcroft withdrew his libel action against The Times, no court will ever now pass judgment on Andreas Whittam Smith's lip-smacking gloom about our legal prospects (Comment, 13 December). Let me, however, reassure him that there was no commitment during the withdrawal settlement that The Times support the Conservative Party at the next election. Nor could there have been. To suggest otherwise is to fall victim to the wildest fantasies of the battered Tory tribe.

PETER STOTHARD

Editor, "The Times"

London E1